U.S. patent number 11,301,876 [Application Number 13/731,291] was granted by the patent office on 2022-04-12 for systems and methods for providing navigation tendencies to users of a website.
This patent grant is currently assigned to W.W. Grainger, Inc.. The grantee listed for this patent is W.W. GRAINGER, INC.. Invention is credited to Geoffry A. Westphal.
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United States Patent |
11,301,876 |
Westphal |
April 12, 2022 |
Systems and methods for providing navigation tendencies to users of
a website
Abstract
The example systems and methods provide ways for websites to
monitor, store, retrieve, and display navigation tendencies of
users of websites. More particularly, the systems and methods
involve websites displaying measures of user traffic associated
with various categories of web content. The measures of user
traffic may inform a user of how the user previously navigated the
various hierarchical categories of web content, or the measures of
user traffic may inform a user of how others navigate the various
hierarchical categories of web content. Moreover, the user may
select an identifiable group of users for which the website will
display navigation tendencies. In the alternative, the website may
display navigation tendencies of an identifiable group of users
based on an identity of the user viewing the website.
Inventors: |
Westphal; Geoffry A. (Evanston,
IL) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
W.W. GRAINGER, INC. |
Lake Forest |
IL |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
W.W. Grainger, Inc. (Lake
Forest, IL)
|
Family
ID: |
1000006234006 |
Appl.
No.: |
13/731,291 |
Filed: |
December 31, 2012 |
Prior Publication Data
|
|
|
|
Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20140188551 A1 |
Jul 3, 2014 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q
30/0201 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06Q
30/02 (20120101) |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Wu; Rutao
Assistant Examiner: Elkassabgi; Zahra
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Claims
I claim:
1. A non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereon
instructions which, when executed by a computer, perform steps
comprising: monitoring interactions of at least one user with a
menu of a first web page of an electronic commerce web site
comprised of a plurality of hyperlinks, wherein each of the
plurality of hyperlinks is activable to redirect the electronic
commerce website to a linked to one of a plurality of further web
pages each of which is associated with a one of a plurality of
categories of web content of the electronic commerce website and
wherein each of the plurality of hyperlinks is associated with a
displayed measure of user traffic, to determine if the at least one
user has performed an interaction with a one of the plurality of
hyperlinks; in response to it being determined that the at least
one user has performed an interaction with the one of the plurality
of hyperlinks, causing a timing element to start a measure of a
predetermined period of time; continuing to monitor for
interactions of the at least one user with the electronic commerce
website to determine if the at least one user has performed an
interaction indicative of a navigation away from the one of the
plurality of further web pages that is linked to the one of the
plurality of hyperlinks; causing the monitored interactions of the
at least one user to be stored in a data repository only when it is
determined from the continued monitoring that the at least one user
has failed to perform an interaction indicative of a navigation
away from the one of the plurality of further web pages that is
linked to the one of the plurality of hyperlinks before an
expiration of the predetermined period of time being measured by
the timing element; and periodically causing the displayed measure
of user traffic that is associated with each of the plurality of
hyperlinks of the menu of the first web page to be modified based
at least in part on the monitored interactions of the at least one
user that are caused to be stored in the data repository.
2. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim
1, wherein at least one of the plurality of categories of web
content pertains to at least one of a category of products, a
category of services, or a category used to refine results of a web
site search.
3. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim
1, wherein the at least one user is part of an identifiable subset
of users of the electronic commerce website and the displayed
measure of user traffic that is associated with each of the
plurality of hyperlinks of the menu of the first web page is caused
to be modified based on monitored interactions of the identifiable
subset of users that are caused to be stored in the data
repository.
4. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim
3, wherein the displayed measure of user traffic comprises at least
one of a displayed numerical indicator, a displayed percentage, a
displayed popularity indicator, a displayed color, or a size
provided to each of the plurality of hyperlinks.
Description
FIELD OF DISCLOSURE
The present disclosure relates generally to e-commerce and, more
particularly, to systems and methods for providing navigation
tendencies to users of a website.
BACKGROUND
In the art it is known to monitor interactions of a user with a
website. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,877,007, which is
incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a
system and method that track interactions of a user with content
provided by a website. To this end, input made by a user as the
user interacts with webpages that comprise the website, such as
mouse movements, button clicks, typing, etc., is streamed back to a
tracking server and stored. The stored information related to the
user's interactions with the website may then be analyzed and used,
for example, to redesign the website so as to make it more
user-friendly or more easily navigable. As a further example, U.S.
Patent Publication No. 2005/0044139, which is also incorporated
herein by reference in its entirety, describes a system and method
in which interactions of a user with a website are monitored by
keeping logs of clicks on webpage links. For this purpose, a
website developer includes a link identifier in a selectable link
of a webpage. When the selectable link is clicked on by a user of
the website, the link identifier triggers a click tracking system
to initiate click tracking for that particular link. The click on
the link is then logged by a tracking server and the user is
redirected to a destination specified in the link. Usage patterns
may then be derived from statistics generated from the log files on
the tracking server.
Further, customers using e-commerce websites typically visit the
websites several times before making purchases. During each
subsequent visit to a website, customers re-navigate the website
searching for the same or similar products or services. Despite
detailed tracking methodologies such as those described in U.S.
Pat. No. 6,877,007 and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0044139,
however, no known websites provide customers with information that
shows which categories and subcategories of products or services
customers previously navigated. In other words, customers are
essentially on their own in terms of re-navigating a website's
menus, categories, hierarchies, layout, etc. Therefore, a need
remains for systems and methods that allow a user of a website to
view how the user tends, or how other users tend, to navigate the
website.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a better understanding of the disclosed systems and methods for
providing website navigation tendencies to users of a website,
reference may be had to examples shown in the following drawings in
which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating components of an example
network system in which the disclosed methods may be employed;
FIG. 2 is an electronic file tree representing an example
organization of categories of website content and/or data
representing the website content;
FIG. 3 is a screenshot of an example webpage having numerous
categories of web content and measures of user traffic associated
with at least some of those categories of web content;
FIG. 4 is a screenshot of an example webpage that a user may be
routed to after selecting one of the categories shown in FIG.
3;
FIG. 5 is a screenshot of an example webpage showing additional
examples of measures of user traffic;
FIG. 6 is a screenshot of an example webpage showing still another
example way in which measures of user traffic may be displayed;
and
FIG. 7 is a screenshot of an example webpage showing measures of
user traffic that are attributable to one particular user.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
To address the aforementioned need and other needs, disclosed
hereinafter are systems and methods that use information gained
from monitoring interactions of users with a website to enhance
visits by others and subsequent visits by the same users. In one
example, by recording data about the interactions of users with the
website, the systems and methods may cause a website to display
information showing navigation tendencies of a user, of other
users, or of a particular subset of users. More particularly, the
example website may display information regarding how many visits
certain categories, subcategories, etc. of web content have
experienced recently.
Further, users of a website can learn how similarly-situated users
are navigating through a website. For example, if the website
identifies a particular user as being a custodian, for instance,
the website may display navigation tendencies of custodians that
use the website. The user may then view how others with similar
interests navigate the website. Moreover, users who are less
familiar with a website can view the navigation tendencies of
others that are more familiar with the website. By viewing the
navigation tendencies of more-experienced users, less-experienced
users can learn about new categories of web content and popular
categories of web content provided by the website. Another benefit,
for example, may be that users of the website who are purchasers on
behalf of a business will discover other products or services
offered by the website, thereby allowing the business to downsize
the number of vendors it uses.
While the foregoing generally disclose systems and methods for
providing website navigation tendencies to users, a better
understanding of the objects, advantages, features, properties, and
relationships of the systems and methods will be obtained from the
following detailed description and accompanying drawings which set
forth illustrative examples which are indicative of the various
ways in which the principles of the disclosure may be employed.
With reference now to the figures, the following discloses example
systems and methods for providing website navigation tendencies to
users of a website. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a system 10 will be
disclosed in the context of a plurality of processing devices
linked via a network 12, such as the World Wide Web or the
Internet. In this regard, a user processing device 20, illustrated
in the example form of a computer system, a user processing device
20', illustrated in the example form of a mobile device, or a user
processing device 20'', illustrated in the example form of a
personal computer, provides a means for a user to access a website
content server 68 via the network 12 and thereby gain access to
content, such as media, data, webpages, an electronic catalog,
etc., stored in a repository 68A associated with the content server
68. Furthermore, the website content server 68 and/or the user
devices 20, 20', 20'' include functionality which allows the system
10 to monitor how a user interacts with the website content offered
via the website content server 68.
By way of non-limiting example, the system 10 monitors user
interactions with a website by recording events, accessed content,
and other data such as the following: keyword searches; model
number searches; stock-keeping unit (SKU) searches; parameters used
in searches; selection guides; clicked links; links that a user's
mouse hovered over for a measurable period of time; accessed menus,
categories of product, subcategories of product, and the like;
products viewed; number of products viewed; product images that
were magnified; product comparisons; times during which webpages or
other content was viewed or accessed; duration of stay; dialogs of
chat sessions; audio recordings of telephonic conversations between
the user and a customer service representative; identities of
employees with which the user interacts; notes from users, peers
(e.g., another company employee or an employee from another
company), service representatives, or technical representatives;
order histories; pending orders; user alerts; user preferences;
personal information (e.g., created by or provided for the user);
information that is related to the user via the user's membership
in a group; referring websites; transfer websites; and so on. In
short, the disclosed systems and methods may in some examples
record virtually all aspects of users' visits to the website while
still adhering to all relevant privacy regulations.
To enhance users' visits and return visits to the website, as
disclosed below, such information relevant to users' interactions
with and navigation of the content offered by the website content
server 68 are stored and provided to new users and repeat users. In
one example, information relevant to the users' interactions with
and navigation of the content offered by the website are stored in
the repository 68A associated with the content server 68 and are
further indexed to a particular user (e.g., using authorized
information such as log-in information, tracking cookies, internet
protocol (IP) addresses, or other information which the content
server 68 may utilize to identify the user).
In another example, the information relevant to users' interactions
with and/or navigation of the content offered by the website may
also or alternatively be stored on user-side devices such as the
user computing device 20, for example. Storing data on a user
device may be particularly advantageous where, for example, a user
has not logged onto the website content server 68 and is
anonymously navigating the content provided by the website content
server 68. In this case, the information relevant to the user's
interactions with and navigation of the content offered by the
website content server 68 may be stored, for example, in a tracking
cookie placed onto the user computing device 20 using well known
techniques. Because the manner by which the user device 20 is used
to access and navigate the website offered by the website content
server 68, the manner by which the website content server 68 makes
content available to the user device 20, and the manner by which
the website usage is monitored are all well known in the art, they
will not be discussed herein for the sake of brevity.
For performing the functions required of the computing devices 20,
68, the example computing devices 20, 68 include computer
executable instructions that reside in program modules, which may
include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures,
etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract
data types. Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art will
appreciate that the computing devices 20, 68 may be any device
having the ability to execute instructions such as, by way of
example, a personal computer, a mainframe computer, a
personal-digital assistant ("PDA"), a tablet, a cellular telephone,
a mobile device, an e-reader, or the like. Furthermore, while the
computing devices 20, 68 within the system 10 are illustrated as
respective single devices, those having ordinary skill in the art
will also appreciate that the various tasks disclosed hereinafter
may be practiced in a distributed environment having multiple
processing devices linked via a local or wide-area network whereby
the executable instructions may be associated with and/or executed
by one or more of multiple processing devices.
More particularly, the user computing device 20, which may in some
examples be representative of all of the computing devices
illustrated in FIG. 1 and/or other users' devices, performs various
tasks in accordance with the executable instructions. Thus the
example user computing device 20 includes one or more processing
units 22 and a system memory 24, which may be linked via a bus 26.
Without limitation, the bus 26 may be a memory bus, a peripheral
bus, and/or a local bus using any of a variety of well-known bus
architectures. As needed for any particular purpose, the example
system memory 24 includes read only memory (ROM) 28 and/or random
access memory (RAM) 30. Additional memory devices may also be made
accessible to the processing device 20 by means of, for example, a
hard disk drive interface 32, a removable magnetic disk drive
interface 34, and/or an optical disk drive interface 36. As will be
understood, these devices, which may be linked to the system bus
26, respectively allow for reading from and writing to a hard disk
38, reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 40, and
for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 42, such as
a CD/DVD ROM or other optical media. The drive interfaces and their
associated tangible, computer-readable media allow for the
nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data
structures, program modules, and other data for the user computing
device 20. Those of ordinary skill in the art will further
appreciate that other types of tangible, computer readable media
that can store data may be used for this same purpose. Examples of
such media devices include, but are not limited to, magnetic
cassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli
cartridges, random access memories, nano-drives, memory sticks, and
other read/write and/or read-only memories.
A number of program modules may be stored in one or more of the
memory/media devices. For example, a basic input/output system
(BIOS) 44, containing the basic routines that help to transfer
information between elements within the user computing device 20,
such as during start-up, may be stored in ROM 28. Similarly, the
RAM 30, the hard drive 38, and/or the peripheral memory devices may
be used to store computer executable instructions comprising an
operating system 46, one or more applications programs 48 (such as
a Web browser), other program modules 50, and/or program data 52.
Still further, computer-executable instructions may be downloaded
to one or more of the computing devices as needed, for example, via
a network connection.
A user may enter commands and information into the user computing
device 20 through input devices such as a keyboard 54 and/or a
pointing device 56. While not illustrated, other input devices may
include a microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, a
touchpad, a touch screen, a motion sensing input, etc. These and
other input devices would typically be connected to the processing
unit 22 by means of an interface 58 which, in turn, may be coupled
to the bus 26. Input devices may be connected to the processor 22
using interfaces such as, for example, a parallel port, game port,
firewire, universal serial bus (USB), or the like. To receive
information from the user computing device 20, a monitor 60 or
other type of display device may also be connected to the bus 26
via an interface, such as a video adapter 62. In addition to the
monitor 60, the user computing device 20 may also include other
peripheral output devices such as a speaker 53.
As further illustrated in FIG. 1, the user computing device 20 has
logical connections to one or more remote computing devices, such
as the content server 68 which, as noted above, may include many or
all of the elements disclosed above relative to the user computing
device 20 as needed for performing its assigned tasks. By way of
further example, the website content server 68 may include
executable instructions stored on a non-transient memory device
for, among other things, presenting webpages, handling search
requests, providing search results, providing access to context
related services, sending emails, managing lists, managing shopping
carts, presenting requested user specific information, etc.
Communications between the user computing device 20 and the content
server 68 may be exchanged via a further processing device, such as
a network router 72, that is responsible for network routing.
Communications with the network router 72 may be performed via a
network interface component 73. Thus, within such a networked
environment, e.g., the Internet, World Wide Web, LAN, or other like
type of wired or wireless network, it will be appreciated that
program modules depicted relative to the user computing device 20,
or portions thereof, may be stored in the memory storage device(s)
of the content server 68. Additionally, it will be understood that,
in certain circumstances, various data of the application and/or
data utilized by the content server 68 and/or the user computing
device 20 may reside in the "cloud." In other words, the data
repository may reside in any suitable location. For example, the
data repository 68A may reside, without limitation, on the user
device 20, directly connected to the user device 20, with the
content server 68, in the "cloud," and/or any combination thereof,
e.g., the user device 20 may periodically download data from the
"cloud" or the content server 68 and store the data on the user
device 20.
As briefly disclosed above, the information gathered from website
usage monitoring may then be used to supplement the web content
being offered by the content server 68. While such information
could be provided to users of the website in a multitude of ways,
the present disclosure recognizes that more often nowadays
e-commerce websites are designed, organized, and/or navigated
according to a series, for example, of bins, classes,
classifications, collections, departments, divisions, families,
genres, groupings, hierarchies, sections, sets, species, types,
and/or other categories (and subcategories) that correspond to
different products, services, and so on. The websites make such
categories accessible to users through menus, sidebars, and/or
other website navigation tools, for example. Users rely, heavily at
times, on these categories and website navigation tools to navigate
multiple levels of categories in an effort to locate certain
products or services. Thus, utilizing data based on monitored user
interactions, the system 10 assists users in navigating a website
based on their prior navigations of such categories and/or other
users' prior navigations of such categories.
That said, in one example the website content server 68 provides
data from the repository 68A representing the website content
organized into multiple categories. Organization of the categories
of website content and/or data representing website content may be
analogized to an electronic folder tree 100 as shown in FIG. 2. In
some examples, the website content server 68 may in fact store data
representing website content in an electronic folder structure in
the repository 68A similar to the electronic folder tree 100 shown
in FIG. 2. In other examples, however, the folder tree 100 may be
merely representative of the categories of web content organized on
a website.
Nonetheless, in one example each folder in the example folder tree
100 represents a different category of data and/or web content. For
example, a top-level folder 102 may represent a product category of
web content having products available for sale on a website, as
opposed to a resources category, a services category, an
international content category, a repair parts category, or other
categories, for instance. Within the example top-level folder 102
in FIG. 2 are at least three example folders 104, 106, 108. Each of
the folders 104, 106, 108 may pertain in one example to categories
of product such as pneumatic products, electrical products, and
lubricating products, respectively, for instance. One of these
three folders 106, which corresponds to the electrical products in
this example, has ten of its own folders 110, 112, 114, 116, 118,
120, 122, 124, 126, 128. Each of these folders 110, 112, 114, 116,
118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128 may in one example pertain to a
category of electrical products, such as electrical connectors,
electrical wire cutters, electrical tape, and the like. Still
further, the example folder 114 has five additional folders 130,
132, 134, 136, 138, and the example folder 122 has two additional
folders 140, 142. The example folders 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140,
142 may contain web content corresponding to individual
products.
It should be understood that the folder tree 100 shown in FIG. 2 is
merely an example of one possible way in which web content and/or
data representing web content may be organized. The top-level
folder 102, for instance, could have thousands of sub-folders
representing different categories of data, or the folders 136, 140
could have many more iterations of sub-folders. What's more, the
present disclosure analogizes here to the folder tree 100 for
purposes of explanation only.
With reference now to FIG. 3, an example webpage 170 of an
e-commerce website includes a menu 172 providing, amongst other
features, links to five example categories of web content. The five
categories of web content shown in the example menu 172 include
products 174, resources 176, services 178, worldwide content 180,
and repair parts 182. The products 174 category of web content has
been selected, revealing example categories 184 of product in a
sub-menu 186. Each category 184 of product may contain a hyperlink
that redirects users of the website to further web content when
clicked. The webpage 170 provides these menus 174, 186 as website
navigation tools that allow users to navigate to desired web
content by "drilling down" through categories and subcategories of
web content. Although this disclosure refers to "categories" and
"subcategories" of web content, it should be understood that this
nomenclature is used merely for purposes of explanation and that
the present disclosure is in no way limited to two levels--or any
fixed number of levels--of categories/subcategories.
In keeping with the folder tree 100 analogy of FIG. 2, the
top-level folder 102 may represent the products 174 category of web
content in FIG. 3, for example. Further, the three folders 104,
106, 108 within the top-level folder 102 of FIG. 2 may represent
from the webpage 170 of FIG. 3 a category of "Cleaning" products
188, a category of "Fasteners" products 190, and a category of
"Hand Tools" products 192, respectively. Although not shown in FIG.
2, folders representing web content and/or data associated with
each of the other twenty-nine categories 184 of product in the
sub-menu 186 in FIG. 3 may exist underneath the top-level folder
102.
To provide users of the website with information as to how other
users are navigating to different webpages of the website, the
system 10 is configured to indicate on at least one webpage, such
as the webpage 170 for instance, a measure of recent user traffic
associated with one or more categories of web content. Example
measures of user traffic 194 are displayed next to seven of the
categories 184 within the sub-menu 186 on the webpage 170 in FIG.
3. More specifically, the example measures of user traffic 194 in
FIG. 3 represent a number of visits that have occurred recently
within certain product categories 184 including "Cleaning" (5,747
visits), "Fasteners" (2,257 visits), "Hand Tools" (101 visits),
"Lighting" (547 visits), "Office Supplies" (102 visits), "Power
Tools" (344 visits), and "Safety" (85 visits). Though omitted from
the higher levels of web content in FIG. 3 such as those in the
menu 172, measures of user traffic may in some examples be
displayed for more than one level of categories, if not all levels
of categories. And further, while the measures of user traffic 194
shown here include numerical counters, the measures of user traffic
are not so limited. The measures of user traffic may in other
examples comprise percentages, popularity indicators, alterations
to text and/or other colors, alterations to text and/or other size,
outlined images, outlined text, icons, graphics, borders,
animations, and so on. Of course, the examples disclosed herein are
equally applicable to all of these measures of user traffic,
whether explicitly stated or not.
The present disclosure contemplates a wide variety of ways in which
to count and/or display the measures of user traffic 194 associated
with categories of web content. As described further below with
respect to displaying the measures of user traffic 194, in some
examples users of the website may view and/or freely switch between
measures of user traffic 194 associated with the user's own
navigation tendencies, with another user, with a subset of users,
with multiple subsets of users, or any other suitable user
grouping. With respect to counting the measures of user traffic
194, in one example the measures of user traffic 194 may be tallied
according to a recent period of time, such as, for instance, the
last ten days, the last three weeks, the last two months, or any
other desired period. In another example, the measures of user
traffic 194 may be displayed based on a certain number of
most-recent visits (e.g., the last 10,000 visits) to or within a
category of web content. In some examples, the system 10 may count
multiple visits by a same user. In examples where it is desirable
to obtain a broader spectrum of data from a higher number of users
rather than data from a smaller number of users that visit the
website more frequently, however, the system 10 may be configured
so as not to count visits to categories by the same user that
exceed a permissible rate. For instance, the system 10 may only
count the same user's visits to the category of "Cleaning" products
188 at a maximum rate of twice per week, even if the same user
visits the category of "Cleaning" products 188 ten times in ten
different web browsing sessions in a week. Conversely, the system
10 may be configured in other examples to only count activity of
users that visit the website frequently (e.g., twice per week), as
they are more likely to be familiar with the website than those who
visit less frequently. In other words, navigation tendencies of
experienced website users may be more valuable than navigation
tendencies of less-experienced website users.
Yet further, in the example of FIG. 3, the system 10 has been
configured to display the measures of user traffic 194 for seven of
the most-visited categories 184 within the product 174 category of
web content. Yet in other examples, the webpage 170 may display the
measures of user traffic 194 for a different number of most-visited
categories 184 or for all the categories 184. In a still further
example, the system 10 may be configured to cause the webpage 170
to display the measures of user traffic 194 for all categories of
web content on all levels for all visits since the website began
monitoring user interactions. In some examples, moreover, the
system 10 may cause the webpage 170 to display the measures of user
traffic 194 only after a certain category of web content
experiences a minimum number of visits (e.g., five visits) or a
minimum rate of visits (e.g., five visits per week).
Further, regarding the counting of visits, one of ordinary skill in
the art will appreciate that the system 10 does not necessarily
require users to click the links corresponding to the categories
184 in the sub-menu 186 because there may be more than one way to
arrive at a category of web content. Similarly, the system 10 may
be configured to count a visit only after a user has spent a
minimum amount of time within the selected category of web content.
For example, such a filter would be advantageous where a user
enters a category of website content erroneously and quickly clicks
a "back" button on a web browser to exit that category of website
content. The filter would also be advantageous where a user enters
a category of website content, fails to find content for which the
user is looking, and quickly exits that category of website
content. In yet a further example, the system 10 may additionally
or alternatively employ a weighting system whereby visits where
users spend more time within a category of website content count
more than visits where users spend a brief amount of time within
the category. In such an example, either a point system could be
used, or every block of time (e.g., six minutes) spent within the
category would count as another visit, for instance. In still
another example, instead of weighting by time, the system 10 may
weight visits by number of links clicked within a particular
category of web content. In one example, the system 10 may also or
alternatively weight user visits more heavily where a user
ultimately purchases a product or service within a particular
category of web content.
It should be understood that the present disclosure contemplates
that combinations of all of these example configurations, features,
filters, options, and the like may be employed by the system 10
and/or the website in some examples. Likewise, in some examples,
the present disclosure further contemplates providing users with an
ability to control some, many, or even all of these example
configurations, features, filters, options, and the like. For
instance, to allow the user to control such example configurations,
features, filters, options, and the like, a sidebar (not shown) or
a menu (not shown) could be provided on the webpage 170.
To enable a user of the website to view navigation tendencies of
users belonging to a certain profession, of a group of colleagues,
of another particular user, and/or the like, the system 10 in some
examples limits the measures of user traffic 194 to display visits
corresponding to monitored user interactions of a subset of users.
As disclosed above, the system 10 is often able to identify
particular users by account information, IP addresses, tracking
cookies, purchase history, etc. One aspect to user identities,
moreover, typically includes information as to a profession, an
employer, or some other group with which each user is associated.
Therefore, the system 10 is able to compute and display navigation
tendencies pertaining to a specific subset of users that are
members of, relate to, or otherwise associate with an identifiable
group. Thus, the system 10 may in one example allow a user to
choose an identifiable group of website users and view the measures
of user traffic 194 specifically attributable to that chosen group
of users. In another example, the system 10 may permit the user to
choose more than one group of users for which to view the measures
of user traffic 194. In still another example, once the system 10
identifies a user browsing the website, the system 10 may display
only those measures of user traffic 194 that are attributable to a
group to which the identified user belongs or chooses for purposes
of this search. For instance, if the system 10 identifies a website
user as a plumber, the system 10 may in some examples only display
those measures of user traffic 194 that are specifically
attributable to plumbers that have previously navigated the
website. In this way, the user can navigate through categories of
the website based on the navigation tendencies of other users
having the same interests. Moreover, all of these options may in
some examples be controlled by the user in the sidebar, the menu,
or the like. Put still another way, a user can switch, for example,
between measures of user traffic 194 specific to the user, measures
of user traffic 194 for all users, measures of user traffic 194 for
similarly-situated users, measures of user traffic 194 for expert
users, and so on.
Viewing the navigation tendencies of another user or group of users
is interesting and oftentimes useful, especially where that user or
those users are familiar with the website, because it exposes users
that may be less familiar with the website to other categories from
which more-experienced users are buying. Users that are less
familiar with the website may not know, for example, that the
website sells a particular type of product that is useful for their
own applications.
Once a user selects one of the categories 184 of products from the
sub-menu 186 in FIG. 3, such as the category of "Cleaning" products
188, for example, the user is redirected to another webpage 220
dedicated to cleaning products, as shown in FIG. 4. The example
webpage 220 includes, amongst other web content, categories of
cleaning products in list form 222, a description 224 of web
content on the webpage 220, categories of cleaning products in
graphical form 226, a list of "Brands" 228 offering cleaning
products, and a list of "Price[s]" 230 by which to sort cleaning
products.
With reference to the electronic folder tree 100 of FIG. 2, the ten
folders 110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128 may
represent the ten categories of cleaning products 222,
respectively, shown on the webpage 220 in FIG. 4. In other words,
the user has navigated into the products category 174 of web
content of FIG. 3 (represented by the top-level folder 102 of FIG.
2) and subsequently into the category of "Cleaning" products 188 of
FIG. 3 (represented by the folder 106 of FIG. 2). Although the
folder tree 100 of FIG. 2 is not fully shown or expanded, each of
the ten folders 110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128
representing the ten categories of cleaning products 222,
respectively, may include folders, such as folders 130, 132, 134,
136, 138, 140, 142, for example, that represent web content and/or
data for products. The website could display web content from those
folders 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142 when a link representing
one of the ten categories of cleaning products 222 of FIG. 4 is
selected.
Further, similar to the measures of user traffic 194 associated
with the categories 184 shown in the webpage 170 of FIG. 3, one or
more measures of user traffic 232 may be displayed next to one or
more of the categories 222 shown in the webpage 220 of FIG. 4.
While it should be understood that one or more of the example
configurations, features, filters, options, and the like disclosed
above may be equally applicable to the measures of user traffic 232
shown in FIG. 4, it should also be understood that in some examples
measures of user traffic may be configured differently across
different levels of categories.
For example and without limitation, lower-level categories (i.e.,
categories contained within at least one other category), such as
the cleaning product categories 222, for instance, may receive less
visits because they contain more narrow, more-detailed, or
more-specialized web content than higher-level categories, such as
the general product category 174. To generate meaningful measures
of user traffic, therefore, the system 10 may display visits
counted during a longer period of time for the lower-level
categories in comparison to a period of time associated with
measures of user traffic displayed for higher-level categories. So
while a measure of user traffic associated with a higher-level
category may show a count of visits from the last two weeks, for
example, a measure of user traffic associated with a lower-level
category may show a count of visits from the last two months. By
way of further example, the system 10 may cause the website to
display the measures of user traffic differently based on whether
the user is viewing navigation tendencies for a group of users or
for a single user. For instance, when viewing the navigation
tendencies of a group of users, the website may display measures of
user traffic for categories that have experienced at least thirty
recent visits. On the other hand, when viewing the navigation
tendencies of an individual user, the website may display measures
of user traffic for categories that have experienced at least one
recent visit.
Likewise, the system 10 in one example may also be configured to
display measures of user traffic associated with different subsets
of users depending on a category to which a current user has
navigated. For instance, if the user navigates from a category of
electrical connector products to a category of pipe cleaning
products, the system 10 may switch the measures of user traffic
from representing navigation tendencies associated with
electricians to representing navigation tendencies associated with
plumbers. In one example, the website may prompt the user to allow
recommended changes as to which subset of users the measures of
user traffic represent, or which limits are placed on the way in
which measures of user traffic are counted. For example, where
there is too little data for a meaningful display of measures of
user traffic, the website may prompt the user for permission to
change the subset of users with which the measures of user traffic
are associated, and/or the website may prompt the user for
permission to expand a time period from which the measures of user
traffic are associated.
The example webpage 220 in FIG. 4 also shows that the measures of
user traffic 232 are displayed in one example for the list of
"Brands" 228 offering cleaning products and the list of "Price[s]"
230 by which to sort cleaning products. As those having ordinary
skill in the art will understand, products and/or services
available through e-commerce websites may be sorted, indexed,
filtered, and/or the like according to more than one convention of
categorization of web content. The measures of user traffic 232
shown in FIG. 4 thus provide an example as to how the present
disclosure may be utilized with more than one convention of
categorization of web content at a time.
Turning now to FIG. 5, a lower portion 270 of the webpage 220 of
FIG. 4 is shown. For one, the lower portion 270 of the example
webpage 220 shows that the measures of user traffic 232 are used
with still another convention of categorization of web content. In
particular, the measures of user traffic 232 are displayed in
association with categories 260 of products including "Clearance
Items," "Green," "New Items," "On Sale," "Online Catalog," and
Supplier Diversity." The lower portion of the example webpage 220
also shows a better view of the categories of cleaning products in
graphical form 226. In the example shown here, the webpage 220
includes, amongst other web content, measures of user traffic 232
associated with some of the categories of cleaning products in
graphical form 226. More particularly, these example measures of
user traffic 232 are shown as borders 262 outlining images
representing the categories of cleaning products 226. These example
measures of user traffic 232 also include numerical indicators 264
that represent a number of visits similar to the measures of user
traffic 194, 232 of FIGS. 3-4, respectively.
Further, the borders 262 may in some examples be color-coordinated
such that some colors represent more-trafficked categories while
other colors represent less-trafficked categories. For instance,
borders 266, 268 may be colored red, representing that "Paper
Products" and "Chemicals" are "hot" cleaning categories 226, as
they have had thirty-two and seventeen recent visits, respectively.
Relative to the other categories 226, these two categories have
experienced a high number of visits. Categories 226 of "Floor Care"
and "Rags and Wipes" cleaning products, on the other hand, have
only experienced, respectively, two and five visits recently. Thus
borders 270, 272 associated with those categories 226 may be
colored blue, representing fewer recent visits. In addition, a
category of "Personal Care" cleaning products having eleven recent
visits has experienced a medium level of traffic. A border 274
associated with "Personal Care," therefore, may be colored orange
to represent the medium level of user traffic.
To indicate navigation tendencies to users performing keyword
searches, an example webpage 300 as shown in FIG. 6 provides in one
example a dropdown box 302 containing measures of user traffic 304
beneath a keyword search box 306. In response to a part of or a
whole keyword typed into the keyword search box 306, such as
"hammer," for example, the system 10 may cause the webpage 300 to
display auto-complete categories of products 308 that relate to
typed letters, a word, or words. Although the auto-complete
listings here pertain to categories of products 308, the present
disclosure contemplates that the auto-complete listings could
pertain to a wide variety of categorical web content such as
categories of keywords, brand names, and sale items, for example
only.
Further, the system 10 may also cause the webpage 300 to display
the measures of user traffic 304 next to the auto-complete
categories of products 308. In the example of FIG. 6, one of the
example measures of user traffic 304 includes colored squares 310.
The colored squares 310 may be colored according to a convention
similar to that disclosed above with respect to the measures of
user traffic 232 of FIG. 5. The example colored squares 310 here
include colors ranging from blue to green to orange to red. In this
example, blue squares represent less-trafficked categories of
products 308. Green squares represent a higher level of user
traffic than blue squares. Orange squares represent more user
traffic than green squares. And red squares represent the most
amount of recent user traffic. Moreover, although the auto-complete
categories of products 308 are shown to be sorted by level of
relevance in FIG. 6, in another example the auto-complete
categories of products 308 may be sorted by level of user traffic,
with the most-trafficked auto-complete categories of products 308
shown towards a top of the dropdown box 302, for instance. The
present disclosure also contemplates multiple levels of sorting,
such as by product category and then by popularity, for example.
Further, another example of the measures of user traffic 304
includes numerical indicators 312, which may be displayed in
conjunction with or as an alternative to the colored squares
310.
To allow a user to view the user's own navigation tendencies, the
system 10 may in some examples cause a webpage, such as a webpage
340 of FIG. 7, to display measures of user traffic 342 that are
attributable only to that user. As shown, the example measures of
user traffic 342 for various categories 344, 346, 348 of web
content are entirely attributable to the user in this example. The
example measures of user traffic 342 may even be displayed next to
categories that concern refining searches by parameter choices,
such as the categories 346, 348 in FIG. 7. Further, as previously
disclosed, the user may have the option to control through a
sidebar or a menu which subset of users' navigation tendencies are
displayed in the various measures of user traffic. Likewise, the
user may also have the option to choose to view measures of user
traffic that are solely attributable to the user. Also through the
use of the sidebar or the menu, the user may be able to view the
navigation tendencies of another specific user, to share navigation
tendencies with another specific user or group, or to request to
view navigation tendencies of another specific user or group where
not publicly available.
The disclosed systems and methods may also be advantageous for
employees of a business operating the website. For instance, a
customer service representative assisting a website user via a chat
feature or a telephone call may view navigation tendencies of a
particular group of users with which the user may associate. The
customer service representative could then make recommendations to
the user based on the navigation tendencies of the group of
users.
To display the measures of user traffic on the webpages in the
example forms of percentages, popularity indicators, alterations to
text colors, alterations to text size, outlined images, outlined
text, icons, graphics, borders, animations, and so on, as disclosed
above, the system 10 may employ standard webpage design techniques.
For example and without limitation, standard HyperText Markup
Language (HTML) allows for the modification of webpage content such
as adding webpage textual elements and active links. Those of
ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate how to use
standard HTML programming techniques to add such percentages,
popularity indicators, alterations to text colors, alterations to
text size, outlined images, outlined text, icons, graphics,
borders, animations, and the like to a webpage based on monitored
user interactions with a website.
While various concepts have been disclosed in detail, it will be
appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that various
modifications and alternatives to those concepts could be developed
in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure. For example,
while various aspects of the present disclosure have been disclosed
in the context of functional modules and illustrated using block
diagram format, it is to be understood that, unless otherwise
stated to the contrary, one or more of the disclosed functions
and/or features may be integrated in a single physical device
and/or a software module, or one or more functions and/or features
may be implemented in separate physical devices or software
modules. It will also be appreciated that a detailed discussion of
the actual implementation of each aspect of the disclosure is not
necessary for an enabling understanding of the disclosure. Rather,
the actual implementation of the systems and methods would be well
within the routine skill of an engineer, given the disclosure
herein of the attributes, functionality, and inter-relationship of
the various components in the system. Therefore, a person of
ordinary skill in the art will be able to practice the disclosure
set forth in the claims without undue experimentation. It will be
additionally appreciated that the particular concepts disclosed are
meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of
the disclosure which is to be given the full breadth of the
appended claims and any equivalents thereof.
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